Grieving mum: 'I was on the floor just screaming'

The distraught mother of a three-week-old baby who tragically passed away while being carried in a sling has spoken for the first time in an emotional interview.

Tattika Dunn has revealed what happened in the lead up to the shock death of her newborn son, Harvey, last month on the Kiss FM's Kyle and Jackie O show.

The heart-wrenching conversation left both the Central Coast mum and radio host Jackie O in tears.

NSW Police said the 36-year-old mum brought her son "in a fabric baby sling" to the Long Jetty Community Health Centre on April 8 and spoke with a nurse for about 10 minutes before unwrapping him.

The grieving mother described to Kyle and Jackie O the unimaginable pain of realising her son wasn't breathing after taking him out of the sling at the routine check-up.

"They automatically put him on the table and they were trying to resuscitate. I was on the floor just screaming at the time," she wept.

"It was horrible I was on the floor watching my baby trying to get resuscitated and I could do nothing to help him."

Tattika - also a mother to four-year-old twins - said the moments leading up to the tragedy were like any other day.

Before the appointment she sat down for a coffee at a bakery and fed Harvey then in the space of 10 minutes something sinister happened.

"He was in the sling, which is where he was every single day whenever we went out. He never went in the pram because when we laid him flat he screamed," she said.

Tattika Dunn and her son Harvey, who died in his sling at three weeks old. Photo: GoFundMe

This behaviour of Harvey crying when he was put down was something Tattika had raised with the nurses earlier but she felt her concerns had fallen on "deaf ears".

Tattika also revealed Harvey was born not breathing and covered in bruises from forceps after a difficult and "horror scene" labour. He also had a large "blood clot blister" on his head.

After his birth whenever she tried to lay Harvey flat he would scream "like he was in pain", but despite her and fiance Bill McGlinn's concerns, they were told it was normal.

Tattika said a coroner's report won't be available for months, and until then it wasn't right to blame the sling for the untimely death.

She said the media presence in her hometown had been "horrendous" for her and her family. She wanted to speak on the Kyle and Jackie O show to hopefully reduce the public interest and allow her to grieve in private.

"We are trying to deal with the loss, the grief, and try and get through that... Not sleeping properly, trying to deal with the boys. I have just been bombarded," she said.

"If they want to look into babywearing (awareness) they can do that after the investigation, don't come knocking down (the door of) a grieving family."

Police were initially investigating whether the baby sling had been connected to the death, but are now also considering whether he died from a case of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), The Daily Telegraph reported.

Kyle and Jackie O gave the family $5,000 and a GoFundMe page has been created to help ease the family's financial burden.

This originally appeared on Kidspot and has been republished with permission.